Ethos leverages EigenLayer to introduce validator protocol for Cosmos chains

Ethos, an ETH restaking hub for Cosmos, is leveraging EigenLayer to create a validator protocol for Cosmos chains. 

The move is intended to help solve the difficulty of bootstrapping a validator set on new chains in the Cosmos ecosystem, Ethos said on the social media platform X. 

"The Cosmos hub has recently introduced the idea of Interchain Security (ICS) to mitigate the bootstrapping problem. ICS essentially requires that all validators running the Hub will also operate the nodes of the new chains. This ICS setup is also called Replicated Security," Ethos wrote.

While ICS makes it easier to launch new chains, Ethos said the costs of it include the chain giving up its sovereignty to the hub.

Mesh security

Ethos sees the solution in Mesh security, which is "a generalized version of ICS that allows any IBC-enabled chain to share its security with any other IBC chain. The validators of the provider chain can opt-in to lock their tokens in a smart contract. This smart contract subjects the locked tokens to slashing conditions based on the consumer chain's protocol. A message containing the information about the locked tokens is sent over IBC to the consumer chain which then mints corresponding virtual tokens."

"Through this mechanism, stake from provider chains can supplement the security of the consumer chain Mesh security allows Cosmos chains to mitigate the bootstrapping problem while still retaining security and accruing value to their native token," Ethos continued.

Ethos added that it will post more information as the testnet launch approaches.